But executives of the bank holding company were even happier to report they started their third quarter by selling the bank’s largest foreclosed property at a profit.

The property, an office building in Missouri that Independent acquired through foreclosure several years ago, was sold for $6 million, allowing the bank to post a $400,000 profit on the property’s “book value of $5.4 million, said Independent spokesman Robert Shuster.

The office building constituted 30 percent of Independent’s foreclosure holdings, according to the company’s second quarter earnings report released Monday, July 28.

During the second quarter, Independent reported net income of $6.1 million, or 26 cents per share. Last year’s second quarter profit was $62.2 million, or $2.64 per share, thanks to a $57.6 million income item that was attributed to the company’s “deferred federal tax asset valuation allowance.”

Without the tax allowance, Independent reported a $1 million gain over last year’s second quarter profits, a 14 percent increase, according to a company news release. The bank also reported a 5 percent increase in loan growth while non-performing loans were down 16.7 percent.

"We are very pleased to report our tenth consecutive quarter of profitability as well as further progress in improving asset quality, as evidenced by a reduction in our non-performing loans and loan net charge-offs as compared to the year ago quarter,” said President and CEO Brad Kessel in the news release.

“We remain focused on the long-term improvement in our profitability, primarily through organic growth with a particular emphasis on commercial and consumer lending as well as core deposits.”